I think it’s the place to start, but as has been pointed out eg: by Ophelia Benson, it is at best incomplete since there are genuine moral delemmas where the well being of different people conflict.

Anonymous

What is that? Demonspawn?

Looks like a cephalopod overlord to me.

Claudia

TheoreticalBullshit is incredibly intelligent, and his videos are usually about fairly pure philosophy. I love them, and I was very surprised when I learned that he was a soap-opera actor, a profession I associated with third-rate actor airheads. He certainly has the looks, but damned if he isn’t over-served on the brains for the job.

Shanti

I actually think that “Demonspawn” will be the name of my next musical project!

Miles McCullough

I may have to lengthen my list of celebs I’d go gay for 😀

Lin

Very cool. I love this guy.

http://wings1295.blogspot.com/ Caffeinated Joe

Never watched him on B&B, but he was great on GH, back a few years.

I love his TheoreticalBullshit videos. He is great at explaining himself and is quite comfortable talking on camera. Great face & voice for Atheists!

AxeGrrl

yay:) he’s incredibly articulate (and not just ‘for an actor’

http://cafeeine.wordpress.com Cafeeine

Excellent! I really can’t say if he deserves it, since I’ve never seen him act, but I’ve been following his TB videos for years. Plus, I can now say I’ve talked to an Emmy winner.

http://sa.mu/el samuel

The thing on his shirt is a melting spoon.

Dan W

I never knew he was an actor before now. I’ve only known of him through his awesome youtube videos.

http://diaphanus.livejournal.com/ Ian Andreas Miller

YAY for Scott! Good for him!

Now he needs his own Celebrity Atheist List section.

Tristan Lawksley

“… I was very surprised when I learned that he was a soap-opera actor, a profession I associated with third-rate actor airheads. He certainly has the looks, but damned if he isn’t over-served on the brains for the job. ” — Claudia

Believe it or not, but soap opera actors actually have to be much more talented than your standard run of the mill actors. They have far more lines, spend more time behind the camera, and much more going on in one hour long episode five times a week than what actors have in a two hour movie that takes years for them to film.

Claudia

@Tristan well Scott actually made me rethink my prejudice regarding these actors. What you said makes a lot of sense. My association of these actors with airheads was really based on the general horribleness of soaps and the terrible overacting I’ve seen on those few occasions I’ve sat through a few minutes of the stuff. It’s of course ridiculous to assume that because the intellectual level of a series is low, the level of the actors themselves has to be low.

beijingrrl

Kudos to Scott! TV acting is indeed very intense. But @Tristan got it a little wrong with film acting. The actors are generally only involved in around 3 months of the 1-2 year process. And they also shoot things out of order, so that can be a bit more challenging to find your character’s motivation and keep continuity, whereas, I’d think after awhile, tv actors “know” exactly what their characters would do.

dave

Claudia – You read my mind. I love his TB youtube videos. I rank him right up there with Matt Dillahunty in philosophical brain power. Both those guys have an uncanny ability to cut right to the heart of epistemological matters.

Good for him!!

Lady Copper

Wow, that was a surprise! I’ve watched a lot of his videos and thought that he should be a model or something, but never knew he was an actor. I like his videos but some of them, like one of the recent ones to WL Craig, get so deep I have a really hard time following them. Very smart guy. Good for him on this win.

JulietEcho

I love his YouTube videos and have rarely seen anyone present such consistent, logical points as effectively. Good for him!

Oh yes, I watch his videos too. He’s a very smart, logical individual. The fact he’s easy on the eyes is no matter – since brilliance and smarts don’t necessarily need a pretty package.

mike

scott’s one of the nicest guys around. Great article.

John

Im a christian and disagree with him immensely on certain things, but Scott actually is a pretty nice guy. Definitely vouch for that. Talk with him on Facebook quite a bit, and the phone. Very challenging thinker, at least on a laymen’s level, which most of us are.

Larry Meredith

good video, and good for him. I think his argument is well made in the video but only uses it to describe morality of 2 things: rape and murder, and only in very generic vague terms of murder or rape. I’d like to see him explain how that moral definition stands up when dealing with issues that objectively cause pain and happiness to different societies or individuals or groups or cause both pain and happiness to both sides. Sometimes a little short term pain and lead to long term happiness, sometimes it’s impossible to know the long term outcome. How do you measure pain the pain and happiness and at what ratio do we determine if something is morally right? How do we account for unknown long term happiness/suffering. Our everyday lives are filled with complex moral dilemmas that aren’t as black and white as vaguely stated ‘rape’ and ‘murder’.

DAN SAUNDERS

Morality is subjective. There is no “right” or “wrong” and “good” or “bad” with regard to behavior. There is just opinion. If we are to be a just society with liberty as the foundation for all legislation, then laws will enforce consequences on those who inflict a cost or harm on to another person without their consent. Let’s define consent as when an adult of sound mind makes an informed decision to agree.